Strap down those mowers!

Boy it's good to have cops in the family. Today my nephew saved me a bunch of money!
He was helping me with lawns today and I was pulled over by a cop. He was getting me because my registration had just expired (I know, I know, shame on me!). But he also pointed out that my mowers were not strapped to the trailer.

As he's mentioning this, he recognizes my nephew who's a cop in a different township. They say hi to each other, and that was it, cop sends us on our way as a "Professional courtesy". Phew! Close one.

I later asked my nephew how much the ticket would have been. He said $104 for registration, $104 for emissions, and about $600 for not having equipment secured!!

So, truck goes in tomorrow for inspection, and ratchet straps go on the the mowers.

Just a heads up to you guys. Especially in PA. Apparently there are newer, tougher laws on this now.

Lets set aside the issue of getting a ticket. I simply have too much money invested in equipment to just let it get beat up shifting around on the trailer. And in worst case, go flying off due to an emergency stop or accident. An accident would be bad enough without my new $9000 Exmark sitting beside me at an intersection.

I bought these really nice Green Touch Fastrap wheel clamps to hold down my 48" TTHP. They slowed us down so much loading and unloading that I quit using them after 1 week. The metal parts that mount to the floor do keep the mower from moving around somewhat without using the strap. If I was going to my dealer or somewhere more than 10 miles away, I'd strap them down. Otherwise, who can afford to lose that much time? I got this Jungle Boot deal for my Toro trim mower and boy is that thing sweet! Lift up the front wheels and drop one back down in the boot and your off. Holds it really good too.

straps?? what are those?? well my tractor and bobcat are chainned down.im very anal about those two items being secure.
5 chains on the bobcat and 8 on the TLB.i use to strap the mowers down but everything is so jam packed on those trailers that there isn't enough room to run straps around lol

Just for the record, when I just had the one mower, I had to strap it down to keep it from rolling around. But now that I have two mowers on there, it is SO tight that I can barely get the gate closed. Nothing moves, not even an inch.
This is why I haven't been using the straps.

With that said, I can see why they want the stuff strapped down. Not so it doesn't roll around and get banged up (what do they care?), but so that it doesn't fly off if/when you have an accident and hurt someone.

Either way, I'm not risking that kind of fine $$. Straps are going on whether I like it or not.

5 chains on a Bobcat?! Where do you put them all? We run one chain through the tie down loops on the front and one to the rear of our Cat and then use one binder a chain to tighten. I strap down my mowers, they roll around too much otherwise.